HOBSON’S CHOICE play the Music Gallery Saturday (June 30) as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Toronto-based jazz-chamber-folk quartet Hobson’s Choice spent a week at a cottage recording their debut full-length, appropriate given the elemental and environmental themes running through it.
They navigate the terrain between earnest indie folk and instrumental jazz using vibraphone, trumpet, guitar and voice. If you’re trying to imagine what that sounds like, Joni Mitchell and Steve Reich are good jumping-off points.
A trademark of the band’s sound is the surprising interplay between Rebecca Hennessy’s trumpet parts and Felicity Williams’s scatting. But it’s the songs with lyrics – which share a 70s-inspired spirituality – that stand out. Not For Human Beings, for example, borrows a line from Rumi.
Top track: Of The Waves
